Among the slew of surprising NAB announcements this year comes one from Kinefinity that draws a whole different kind of "wow, I didn't see that coming." It seems the camera company isn't satisfied merely offering 4K RAW (and soon enough, 6K RAW) capture at extremely aggressive prices. Kinefinity also wants to upgrade your Blackmagic Cinema Camera or Production Camera 4K into a bigger, more functional workhorse. The Kine+ program is a third-party modification on a different level, adding interchangeable batteries, HDMI, additional power ports, and even a bit more heftiness to the external dimensions. Check below for our NAB 2014 interview with Kinefinity.

At $1000 and $1500 for BMCC and BMPC 4K owners respectively, this upgrade may not be worth it to you unless you're a pretty hardcore user. With the removable battery option (Sony NP-F), there may be less external rigging and building involved in your BMC kit, though that may be outweighed (no pun intended) by the added weight and greater size and, as commenters have pointed out, even less hand-holdability.

XLR ports are still URSA-only, even though you might think that'd be near the top of the list for an upgrade of this magnitude. That said the modified Tascam would pick up a lot of that slack, and the simultaneous wireless rec triggering is an almost understated perk for how useful it could be in the field. Last but not least, there's the issue of shipping to China, which is seeming to be a deal-breaker for many.

Regardless of all that, though, I think Kinefinity deserves credit for this offering. This is one definite case of a camera company listening and responding to the requests and complaints of users. Except that here it's, well, another camera company listening, and responding with a fairly audacious retrofitting strategy -- both of which are pretty surprising to see. We'll update as we have more information about the program and how you can send your camera in if you'd like the mod.

Why do people want HDMI so bad? it's a terrible connection for video because it's not secure and wobbles too much. It's not made to be on a moving camera. Use SDI. HDMI is for dvd players and consumer devices that sit on a shelf.

Also dont understand why people want XLR on a CINEMA camera that is designed to be synced to recorder sound

The word 'cinema' is thrown around these days. I guarantee 99% of BMCC users aren't using this camera for cinema. It's a general purpose camera, just like Canons EOS cinema line, which in the case of the lower c100, is being used mostly for run & gun or docs. The EOS cinema line and many other so called cinema cameras have xlr inputs. Why? Because although they may not be of use to you, they do however offer very practical use to many other scenarios, mainly quick turn around commercial work for smaller clients.

I hate this mentality of "if I don't need it, no one else should either". We all have different requirements, and based on the massive criticism towards BMD, clearly many users are also in need of proper functioning audio and professional audio connections. I am one such person. The same applies to your hdmi criticism. Like yourself, I prefer SDI, however for those countless operators who own existing hdmi monitors, I certainly see why they'd like a basic hdmi output port.

Completely disagree, the BMCC does not fit any scenario the C100 can do with its eyes closed. The complaints are pretty much from people that bought this camera because it was cheap but also want most of what you get from an AF100. At 240 gig for a mere 30 mins of raw this camera is not designed for any of the scenarios you list. I'm not saying people are not using it that way but as you pointed out, the C100 would be a better fit.

The BMCC is aimed directly at image capture at a low cost. It's not your interview camera, anyone who gets paid to shoot interviews would not use this camera

Change my post from "it's a general purpose camera" to "its most commonly used as a general purpose camera", and maybe you'll better understand where I was coming from. The point of the post is that there's a need for XLR and pro audio (which is advertised in the product spec). Arguing over cost or limitations of shooting RAW is irrelevant to the need for this feature.

Because SDI accessories are by and large far more expensive than their HDMI counterparts.

And using an XLR mic on camera allows you to capture better internal audio which A: Makes syncing easier, and B: Can be used for better room tone. Not to mention XLR is a superior connection than 1/4" jack. Coming from Mr. Use-SDI you should be able to appreciate such a connection.

Tom Antos was playing with some rig on his YouTube channel recently. $2K but you get pretty much everything you get here plus flexibility with the add-on's and so forth. I know a lot of audio products get modded but this adds too much to the cost, IMO.

Very interesting to see where this is going. Personally, I dont really want to ship my BMCC to china to get this done and invest in a new power solution when I finally have my V-mount kit complete and working with all required batteries, but heck - mods for the BMCC - YEA! Maybe this will inspire other companies to create stuff like this as well. Very interested to see where this is going!

For $1500 you could probably buy a v-mount battery connector and battery, an external monitor and external audio recorder with XLR inputs....and keep your camera while you're waiting for it to arrive. ( or even put 50% down on another BMPC 4k as a second camera) Plus you probably void any warranty to your Black Magic camera by having this installed. I don't see the incentive to buy this product at all.

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